


The Grunge Gals

by Goofypants



Category: Sleepless Domain (Webcomic)
Genre: Adopted Children, Canon-Typical Violence, Loss of Parent(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28427367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goofypants/pseuds/Goofypants
Summary: Not all Magical Girls live a life of glory, spending their time in the limelight. And not all of them who fight monsters, do so out in the streets at night. There is a small minority who fight during the day, yet still in the darkness - deep down underground, in the sewers, protecting maintenance crews that work there from monsters that keep finding their way in. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. A Grungy Prologue

The City's sewers are a dark, grungy, twisted place. Every day, hard working men and women toil down there to keep the ancient systems working, knowing full well that the city would collapse without it. It was always hard but honest work, but then it happened. One sunny day 35 years ago, a monster founds its way in through the pipeline. The creature caused immense havoc, killing two workers as it made way towards the surface. Luckily, when it got about sub-basement level, the Barrier's effect kicked in and it was destroyed in seconds. Unfortunately, it was not the last monster to appear in the sewers. Another one managed it eight months later, with similar results, but at least it did not kill anybody, only injuring one worker. Monster encounters in the sewer remained a rare occurrence, but over time became more and more common, until workers started having run-ins with them every 3-4 months. The increasing frequency of monster sightings prompted the City Sewage Works to ask the City Defense Department to provide them with magical girl protection down there, however this was met with swift rebuttal from Foundationalists who refused to ever tarnish the image of a magical girl by sending them down to a sewer. The workers objected but were shot down. Instead, the C.D.D. worked with them to create an alternative. (They also gave them all extra hazard pay so there was at least that)

And so they came up with a sort of a telescopic stun spear. While unable to destroy, or even legitimately damage the monsters, it would prove lifesaving for the workers by enabling to keep them out of a monsters' reach in, allowing them to escape into a smaller side tunnel or shaft where hopefully the monster would not fit or couldn't break into. For a while it actually worked like a charm. But then, the sewer bestiary expanded, and now there were smaller monsters that could follow them there, and also stronger monsters that could break in. The results were often fatal. As the monster encounters would get more and more frequent later on, the workers decided the job was not worth it anymore, despite how well-paid it was, and one day they had enough and organized a strike, demanding magical girl protection for their work. The City officials and Church of Founder refused to budge, but then amid the wave of protests, like a shining star, a new team of magical girls appeared. A team that would become the first in history to be enlisted on sewer duty, mavericks that would be later followed by many more...

******

My name is Augusta Garett. and I am a magical girl. But not you standard run-off-the-mill magical girl, no no no. My costume isn't even a cute dress or anything like that. But we will get to that part later. Me and my friends, Wilhelmina Beijerinck and Milly Geiger, we make a very.... specialized team. While the other girls are attending classes at magical girls' schools, we are already transformed and reporting for duty. Duty that may not be as glamorous as the night patrols of your ''ordinary'' magical girls, but is equally important for the well-being and safety of The City and its residents. 

My parents were killed by monsters in the city sewage system eleven years ago, and I was adopted by their coworkers, who explained everything to me when I was 10. It was a shock to learn all this at once, I'll be honest. Afterwards, together with my friends we swore that if we ever became magical girls we would venture into the putrid darkness of the sewers and use our powers to protect the workers from the monsters that keep finding their way into the system.

All three of us had birthdays in the same month and we hoped that after reaching eleven years of age, we would get our powers the same night. Be it luck, or the Founder hearing our prayers, we actually did! But the real challenge was about to come – convincing the C.D.D. to allow us into the sewers with the sewage workers. It was tough. Milly's parents told us that the story of how the Foundationalists stepped in and put a kibosh on their request for magical girl protection, and I thought it was bullshit. Why, just because it is dirty and smelly down there, the workers do not deserve protection? Preposterous! And then, just days before we gained powers, another three sewage workers died, which resulted in a strike from their coworkers. They protested day and night, but to no avail. That's when we came into play.

When we first approached them, explaining that we are volunteering to go fight monsters down in the sewers, we were met with a swift and condescending rebuttal. They gave us basically the same bullshit reasons as they gave the soldiers – it would tarnish the sanctity of Founder's holy warriors or whatever the hell. I was furious, but then Beiji (that is what we call Wilhelmina) had a brilliant idea. She said: “Let's claim that it is the ''Will of Founder'' that we protect the essential workers in sanitation.” And to really drive our point home, she suggested that we should show our transformation to those dusty old geezers. Beiji was always the smartest one among us, that's for sure. So when the representatives of both sides met the next day, we were there. And so we transformed.

Milly transformed first. Her transformation sequence was the simplest. She just began emitting a blinding green glow and when it faded, she stood there in a yellow and gray radiation suit, with a gray gas mask covering her face. She also had a container of glowing green liquid on her back. Considering this all, she took on the title of Waste Hazmat.

Next up was Beiji. Her transformation was flashier, but definitely weird as heck. Like, those huge viruses and bacteria swarmed her, enveloping her body and forming a neon orange pressurized suit, like those you could see in sci-fi shows and documentaries. So naturally her title became Virus Hazmat.

Last one was me, and I hate to brag but my transformation sequence is the bomb! Maybe literally in fact. It begins with a smoke grenade dropping on me out of nowhere, followed by a small bomb that clears the smoke, revealing my transformed state. My costume is an.... olive rubber smock, gloves boots and mask, a combat helmet and a bunch of gas canisters on my back. This getup earned me the title of Gas Hazmat.

So like I said: No cute dresses in this team.

We stood like this in front of those CDD and Foundrist louts, our stance proud, and Beiji proudly exclaimed: “Gaze upon our visage! Surely you can see yourself. that it is the will of Founder for us to protect the good hard working men and women who maintain our sewage systems! Because for what other reason would the Founder bless us with equipment like this? Surely, if we were meant to stay away from grime and sludge, our costumes would be the beautiful elegant dresses like the other holy warriors! But alas no, Founder calls to enter the depths, and prepared us for it! Thus, it is a call that we shall answer! For who we are to reject the sacred will of Founder?”

It was utter hogwash, I tell you that, but miraculously it worked! The people from the Founder's Church agreed and proclaimed us to be blessed with a special mission directly from the Founder. It was a breakthrough. We gave the sewage workers hope. We were maybe just one team. Just three girls, but I knew that soon, others would follow our example. For not every girl had powers suited for the streets. Ours definitely weren't, so to speak.

That day, our team was established. An unconventional one, but an important one nonetheless. We are Team Hazmat, and this is our story.


	2. Light At The End Of The Tunnel

The sewer was damp and dark, only a thin ray from a small opening in a manhole cover bringing any semblance of light inside. It was around eight in the morning and there were many muffled footsteps and rumbling of trams echoing from the street above. Suddenly, three sets of footsteps approached the manhole, and a squeaky voice echoed through it from the surface.

“Well lookit here, it's the gate to our own personal paradise! Sniffff.... mmmm smells like sewage spirit! So what is on the menu today, chef?”

“Workers reported increased monster activity in this sector, and evacuated the premises. We're to take care of them, so maintenance can resume.” a stern, cold voice responded. 

“Ummm.... how many monsters are we talking?” a mellow, sheepish nasal voiced chimed in.

“Plenty enough. Put down the cones and sign, then transform. Milly, stop wearing the cone on your head.”

A whooshing sound came resonating through the manhole cover and then something plugged the hole that was letting the light in.

“Now, stand back.”

With a grinding sound, the heavy metal cover got pulled aside. Shortly after, a yellow-eyed girl wearing a yellow-and-gray radiation suit with a radiation hazard logo on the hood poked her head in. A sniffing noise was heard through the filter of the mask, and she dropped down into the sewer (doing a sick flip in the process) landing with a loud stomping sound. That was the clown of the group – Milly Geiger a.k.a. Waste Hazmat.

“Okay gals, the air is clean! Hop on in!” She yelled up towards the manhole in her squeaky, girly voice.

“Could you refrain from saying that at least ONE DAMNED TIME?” yelled the other girl while sliding down the ladder. She was dressed in a military-style olive chemsuit with gas mask and helmet with a gas mask warning sign on her helmet – it was Augusta Garret, or Gas Hazmat, the de-facto leader. She stepped aside to make space for the last girl, who slowly and carefully came down the ladder, wearing a pressurized orange biocontainment suit – Wilhelmina ''Beiji'' Beijerinck, known as Virus Hazmat, the nerdy smart one. They both turned on the headlamps that were part of their costumes while the first girl conjured a bright green glowing chemlight stick.

“I'm having Permoník scout ahead for monsters, but in any case: Milly – have your detector active, and Beiji – have one of your microbes watch our backs." Augusta tapped her shoulder and a small olive bird appeared there in a cloud of smoke. With a soft tweet, it flew ahead down the tunnel and disappeared in the dark beyond the reach of their lights. Augusta then pulled out a map detailing the layout of this sector of the sewers from her vest. She pointed at each location that was labeled with a red circle. “Gremblins were reported near a pumping station here, we'll head there first before they cause damage. Gatormaws are suspected to be lurking in sewage gutters here, that is our next stop. And something big is hiding in this reservoir here. If you have any questions, ask away, otherwise we're moving out.”

Milly raised her hand. “Do you know what's a ghost's favorite sandwich? Boo-logna!”

Augusta just walked away without a word while Wilhelmina snorted audibly, making her visor fog up a bit.

******

The Gremblins were incredibly frustrated. The scrawny mask-bearing humanoid monsters were hoping to find a toolbox or some broken discarded tools in the pumping station, but nothing was there, just a couple of large pumps. And so, they were desperately trying to pry them open, but without the tools to do so their attempts were vain. Trying everything at their disposal – bare hands, pieces of wood and glass and various trash did nothing as the pumps were built very sturdily. Still, they just had to get them open, because there must be some good stuff in there... after all what was that whirring noise coming from inside? There's useful goodies in there, that's for certain! 

And so they were all so preoccupied with the task at hand that they paid no attention to the yellow metal tube that slowly and silently rolled in. But when the tube started hissing and spewing acidic gas that stung and burned their skin, they noticed immediately and panic broke out. Even though the effect of the gas slowed them down, still they skittered about wildly, crashing into walls and each other. Suddenly, a horde of amoebas the size of ripe melons rushed in through the doorway. With hungry predatory faces they began gnawing on them with sharp pointy teeth. The Gremblin leader ran out of the room hoping to save itself, but as soon as it stumbled out to the tunnel it got a faceful of green blowing goo for its troubles and melted into a small green glowing puddle. The puddle bubbled and evaporated after a few seconds.

“Okay, I'm getting zero readouts now. ” Milly stated, looking at the device she carried on her hip. ”All uglies have been successfully eliminated.”

“Good, check the room out. Hopefully those scumbags did not cause any substantial damages.”

Luckily it turned out they did not cause any real damage at all. Augusta produced a small notepad and pen from her vest pocket and noted down everything about the dents and scratches done to the pumps by the Gremblins' ham-fisted attempts to disassemble them. After everything was checked she gestured for her teammates to follow her and headed out into the tunnel. As Milly was leaving the room, she felt something strange... as if someone was watching. In response, she lifted her chemlight to illuminate the dark corridor to her left, but nothing was there. Shaking her head, she followed Augusta and Beiji who went to the right.

******

The Gatormaw floated limply in sewage-tainted water, patiently waiting for any prey to come by. It was not driven by the need to feed as it did not feel hunger. It only felt an instinct, a calling that prompted it to lie in wait and attack whatever sentient being that came near. And then came a disturbance, a tremor, getting closer and closer. Not just a single one. Multiple. Three sets of footsteps approaching at a steady pace, echoing out on the concrete walkway passing by the canal the sewage flowed in. The monstrous lizard prepared itself. Just a few more steps closer, and it would strike.

With a huge splash, the Gatormaw lunged itself at Team Hazmat, its huge jaws open to an angle impossible to a real, actual alligator. But that was a mistake. Augusta stomped down on its bottom jaw and held its upper jaw up with her left hand. Producing an orange grenade in her right hand, she removed the pin with the flick of her thumb and tossed it down the Gatormaw's gullet before jumping back and letting go. The confused lizard monster slammed its mouth shut and swallowed. Immediately afterwards, it began bloating from the released gas that ignited itself , making flames shoot from its nostrils and it exploded, the remains evaporating quickly.

“Pop goes the Gator! Why do I have a feeling that someone did something like that before?” Milly giggled as she blasted another Gatormaw that charged them with a stream of glowing goo.

“Well detonating lizard-like monsters is the number one pastime in the City, didn't you know?” Wilhelmina quipped back in an unusual display of whimsicality, and commanded three giant viruses to tear apart another Gatormaw.

Several exploded, gooified and giant-virus-bitten crocodile monsters later, the fight was over. Milly produced her trusted detector and nodded as the device lay silent, the gauge reading zero. “All clear! The entirety of local Gatormaw population were successfully turned into wallets, purses and boots.”

“Good. We still have the big one on our hands.” Augusta replied as Permoník flew in from the doorway on the opposite end of the walkway. The bird familiar perched itself on Augusta's readied finger and began tweeting. “He says he caught its track, but cannot say for sure. Let's head out right away and check it out.”

******

Later in a large, square-shaped room with metal walkways on the edges and a deep reservoir beneath.

“Okay so, according to our feathery friend, the big monster is there, underwater?“ Milly asked while fiddling with her Geiger counter. “Because I am not picking up on any strong signals coming from there. The readouts I'm getting here suggest that this thing is an another Gatormaw at best.”

Permoník sitting on Augusta's shoulder tweeted softly. “He says he cannot gage it either, but knows it's big because he sensed it crawling in there and it had an aura that felt... heavy. Beiji, could it be a Lavalisk?”

“Impossible. Lavalisks despise water and avoid damp areas, even though their lesser form Gatormaws love it and hide in it. Unless this is a new amphibious variant (which I would name Aqualisk!), there is no Lavalisk hiding in those murky depths that we are gazing into. I should also note their rarity, and that their aggressive behavior makes them unlikely to hide like this.” 

“Well whatever this thing is, I ain't diving in there after it. Room service, could I please ask for a red grenade in my bathtub at room 402, thank you!”

Augusta rolled her eyes and prepared a repellent grenade. With a trained motion, she pulled the pin and tossed it down into the reservoir, and a after a few moments, bubbles of red gas started floating to the surface.. Then something stirred at the bottom, making deep rumbles echo all around, even causing small waves in the reservoir.

“Well this big hot tub here sure is deep... deeper than my poetry even. Hold up... why is my counter going crazy all of sudden?”

Indeed, as the rumbling gained on intensity, Milly's Geiger counter started clicking rapidly, while Augusta's bird companion emitted a warning screech. Before they could realize what was that about, a bright yellow light shone at them from beneath the surface.

“Watchout!” Wilhelmina yelled, tackling her teammates out of the way when with a blood-curdling screech, something big long and gray burst from the depths and charged into the corridor behind them.

“Huh. Now would be a good time for commercial break.” Milly quipped as she scrambled back up to her feet.”

“Shit! We can't let THAT escape! Quick, follow it!” Augusta yelled and sprinted into the tunnel after it, with Milly and Wilhelmina hot on her heels.

They ran down the tunnel when suddenly, the light came shining at the from the other end, and charged at them with tremendous speed. Thinking quick, Augusta grabbed her teammates by the arms and pulled them into a niche in the tunnel wall, and the gray monstrosity rushed by them with a deafening rumble. After it passed by, they were knocked over by a massive back draft, falling over and almost getting sucked back into the tunnel.

“Sheesh, Augusta sure paid off her life debt to you quickly, Beiji. Next time it should be me who saves us all. Also, what in damnation is that thing? It is making my detector go haywire!” Milly complained and showed them the Geiger counter. The gauge's needle was whipping itself left and right, and the device emitted random clusters of clicks.

“Its acceleration is nothing short of unbelievable and it seems very well-adapted for underground environment. And it appears to emit a signal or aura that scrambles our detection abilities... let me summon Moe to make sure.” Wilhelmina's amoeba familiar appeared in an orange flash and it started looking around confused while yipping and growling. “So my hypothesis is correct. Well, ladies and gentlebird, it appears that we have at last met a monster that can best us on our home territory.” She stated with an unbelievably calm voice, but her friends knew that it mean she was actually pretty terrified.

“Nonsense. We'll figure out a tactic.” Augusta replied calmly and produced a combustible grenade. She peeked out into the tunnel, grenade in hand, and then jumped out of cover. “Hey maggot! Is that all you can do? I'm over here, come face me, I will kick your can good! You hear me?” She shouted in the direction that the monster went.

Her voice reverberated in the tunnel, followed by a short silence, and then the deep low droning rumble came back in response, and bright light flooded the tunnel. Augusta stared it down and readied the grenade. As the light charged at her he pulled the pin, then tossed it into the rapidly approaching glow and dived to the side, back into the niche. The blind shot actually hit the mark, because the creature sped past them with the front end enveloped in flames, emitting an agonized roar. It also appeared to have slowed down, enough for the back draft not to knock them over again. Milly, displaying a surprising level of quick thinking, sprung into action, jumping out into the tunnel with her sprayer ready. Immediately she began charging her beam and managed to fire it and hit the monster in the back end before it turned a corner and disappeared.

“Gosh, what a tough cookie this one is.” She groaned in disappointment and checked her counter again. The dial was still going haywire.

“Is it not dead after that?”

“Nope... my counter is out cold just like before. So that thing is still kickin', unless it somehow managed to scramble the device permanently.”

Augusta nodded her head in the direction the monster went. “We need to pursue it. I doubt it'll try to charge us here again, it learned a painful lesson.” She peeked out from their hideout and listened for a moment. "OK, move out. Be aware of surroundings. We cannot detect it so we'll stop by every niche or side tunnel and listen - you hear it coming, take cover. And keep silent - it can hear us."

******

The sewers fell silent, save for the ever-present ambient noises like gurgling pipes and dripping water. The girls moved very silently, and Augusta was delighted that her idea for the team to learn sign language - for stealth purposes, finally bore fruit. As they slowly and carefully crept by an opening observing a large empty reservoir, Milly tapped Augusta's shoulder and pointed at the bottom of it. 

This was the first time they got a good look at their newfound nemesis. The creature - a giant dark gray millipede was resting at the bottom of the empty, grimy reservoir. Covering its body were segmented steel plates with square holes in them that resembled subway train cars, form. It had countless short, stubby legs, and a pair of long antennae were located on the front of what could be considered the roof. To top it off, the rear end of this long insectoid creature formed a finned tail, which explained how it moved underwater before. 

Wilhelmina inaudibly gasped - she recognized the monster. "Girls... this is a legendary creature." She signed to Milly and Augusta "It matches the description of the first monster ever seen in the sewers, over 30 year ago. Except it grew to twice the size originally reported."

"Why didn't they tell us about it?" Milly signed back.

"Well, it was thought to be just a myth, as it wasn't seen ever since. One group I was with only told me about it once because the discussion steered towards sewer-related urban legends. But looks like it does exist after all."

"Let's kill a legend then." Augusta signed and placed five buffing grenades in a tight flower-like formation on the ground. "Milly, charge up your beam, and fire it exactly three seconds after I pull the last pin."

Milly nodded and gripped her sprayer, making green glow radiate from the end of the nozzle. One by one, Augusta quickly pulled out the pins from the grenades and they began spewing the empowering green gas. By this time, the monster heard the rustling and lifted its front half off the ground, turning the head towards them. The openings in the front of the first "car" appeared to house its face - it had a square mouth full of sharp, bear-trap like teeth and four round eyes that glowed bright yellow with the power of a floodlight. It roared and seemed ready to strike, but by that time, Milly was about to release her beam.

"PEW PEW!" She yelled and the bright green beam struck the train monster with incredible power gained from the five buffing grenades' combined effect. It was severely injured, a glowing green hole burned into its front plates, but still far from destroyed and it began thrashing about the empty reservoir in pain-induced rage.

“Let's get the sucker Beiji!” Augusta called out and started tossing caustic grenades, while Wilhelmina summoned an army of large bacteria and viruses that descended upon the creature with ravenous rage. Those two forces combined managed to severely damage multiple segments of the subway car-shaped plates covering the monster's body, even pulling one entire of them off. But as Milly took aim at the now exposed body, the monster regained footing and burst into a large pipe with a painful, enraged roar. But she at least managed to hit the finned tail, destroying it.

“Aw nertz! Well at least it can't hide in the water anymore.”

“Shit! Find cover!” Augusta yelled and shove them both away from the opening as the light appeared in the tunnel from the where they came before. They ran away in the opposite direction, with Augusta dropping repellent grenades along the way in hopes of stopping, or at least slowing the subway train monstrosity down. Judging by the roars followed screeching and grinding sounds as the monster hit each gas cloud, it worked to an extent, and they were able to put several paces between them and the beast. But then suddenly...

“Aw drat! Double drat! We hit a dead end!” Milly exclaimed and then stared off to the side, shrugging. “Well I guess our goose is cooked, eh?” she seemed to tell an imaginary audience.

They found themselves in a large circular room, with a shallow round basin full of murky dirty water in the middle, lined by a thin concrete ring. A rusty metal catwalk in the shape of the plus sign crossed the basin, and it seemed that there used to be entrances to other tunnels at the catwalks' ends, but they were all walled in.

“Shit! We cannot go back, there were no side entrances since I tossed the fourth grenade, and the monster hit than one already! Brace yourselves, we have to make our final stand here!” Augusta cursed and a loud roar was heard again as the monster hit the fifth and final grenade. It was now coming for them, and there was nowhere to run or hide anymore.

“Gee, guess I should start praying to the Founder or something.”

“I have an idea!” Wilhelmina put her hands o her hips, making her stance proud.”I will stand in the entryway, and when the thing comes charging, I will inflate my suit and stand in its way.”

“Beiji are you nuts? That thing will crush you against the opposite wall! You cannot hope to stop it with you suit.” Milly exclaimed and gave her a worried look.

“Don't worry, I will summon a bunch of amoebas to help me stop it, or cushion me should that fail.”

“That could be our only chance. I know you're intelligent enough to weigh the risks properly. Milly take your position on the right, it's close now!” Augusta barked the last sentence and ran to the end of the left catwalk. Milly gave Wilhelmina one last look, then nodded and ran to the end of the right catwalk. Augusta also tossed a buffing grenade at each of their positions.

Wilhelmina took a deep breath. She summoned a horde of giant amoebas to support her, then turned around just as the monster rounded the last corner, and stared her down through the long corridor with its four glowing eyes. Wilhelmina quickly turned the red valve on the waist of her suit and inflated it to twice the size. “Come at me, bro!” She yelled at the monster.

The abominable subway train obliged and charged at her, slamming into her at full speed. But the inflated suit cushioned the tackle, and with the help of her amoeba horde, the brought the train monster to a screeching halt, just a short length before it crushed Wilhelmina into the wall. Immediately after that, the amoebas swarmed it, biting at its legs to prevent it from running away.

“Now!” Wilhelmina screamed an the monster got hit with a shower of caustic grenades, followed by a full blast of Milly's beam and a couple of combustible grenades to top it off. 

The monster wiggled in agony but the single-celled hounds kept gnawing at its legs vigorously and held it down. The beam and the blasts from the combustible destroyed a couple more sections of its subway car armor, but it just refused to go down – its own skin seemed exceptionally sturdy as well and protected it from taking any serious damage. Eventually, it managed to shake off many of the toothy microbe familiars and lift its front half into the air. It turned to the right, and noticing that Milly just began charging up another beam, it decided that she was the biggest threat and lunged at her. Thinking quick, Milly threw herself down onto the catwalk and the monster's head crashed into the wall she stood in front of moments before. Seeing a window of opportunity from her newfound position she fired the beam at the exposed belly of the centipede-like beast.

The beam dredged through the body with ease, shooting out of the monster's back right where an armor plate segment was missing, and practically tore it into two. It roared in pain and for a moment it seemed as if not even this was enough to kill it, but then the two halves tumbled lifelessly into the shallow water of the basin and began dissolving like slain monsters are wont to do. When all of it was gone, the three sewer mahous regrouped in the center of the catwalk.

“Well, you wanted to repay me and Augusta for saving us all before? Well now you just did. You've just slain a legendary monster! Awesome, Milly!” Wilhelmina exclaimed and placed her gloved hand on Milly's shoulder. Augusta nodded in agreement.

“Aw gee golly whiz, it's not really like that, girls. We brought that thing down together, after all and EEEEP!!!”

Out of nowhere, a person ran past them, knocking Milly over the railing and into the basin. “Hey you! Stop!” Augusta yelled at them and took off in hot pursuit. The unknown intruder ran into the corridor they came from. Augusta ran as fast as she could and was quickly gaining on them, but then they turned a corner in a tunnel junction and a loud deep thud was heard, and when Augusta caught up moments later, she was met with a bare concrete wall. There were no doors or anything anywhere, and the person was gone, seemingly vanished into thin air. She rubbed her hands all over the wall, but there was nothing, no hidden switch or anything. Confused by this, Augusta returned to her compatriots. Wilhelmina just managed to pull Milly out of the mucky basin and she was shaking off the dirty water like a wet dog.

“Augusta! You didn't manage to catch them?” Wilhelmina asked.

“No. They turned into a side tunnel, and practically vanished. There was nothing there, just a concrete wall. I searched it to see if there was a secret passage, but found nothing.”

“Ooooo, what if it was a ghost?” Milly asked and wiggled her fingers like if she was telling a scary story. “Come to steal our Boo-logna sandwiches?”

“Ghosts don't tackle people. Or exist. Also...” Augusta walked over to the middle of the catwalk where the incident happened, and picked something up from the ground. “...they don't drop chain necklaces with weird symbol pendants on them.”

She held it up for her teammates to check out. Like she said, it was a metal chain with a pendant, the metal dyed a purple color. The pendant was a symbol similar to the three-pronged star from the symbol used by Foundationalists, but it was inverted, with a small hole in the middle, and a hollow triangle behind it. The person must've had it torn off their neck as they tackled Milly.

“What is this? I do not recognize the symbol from anywhere.” Wilhelmina noted, staring at the pendant.

“Neither do I but it looks... pretty sinister to me. Evil even.” Milly commented.

“Well whatever it is, we will find out whomever is responsible for this.” Augusta explained and stuffed the necklace into her vest pocket. “And catch them.”

“Nyeah well, we can't have crazies wearing strange symbols emerging from holes in the walls that were broken by giant millipedes tackle people in our sewers.” Milly commented and casually pointed at the wall where the monster crashed into it. Augusta and Beiji looked there and true enough, there was a hole in the bricked-in doorway there. So that was where the phantom assailant came from.

Augusta clenched her fist. “Damnation. Look like we stumbled into something here.” She noted, approaching the hole and looking into it. There was a long dark hallway behind it. “Hmph. This does lead somewhere.”

“We should go explore it then. What if something dangerous lurks inside there?”

Milly gave her a quizzing look. “Are you sure Beiji? We are low on magic power, exhausted from a big fight. A confrontation with sewer people or molemen might not turn in our favor. And I sure as heck do not want to be captured and put in a cage to sing lullabies for their insomniac leader.”

“Wait what?”

“Milly has a point, but we must check for threats. Follow me.” With a prepared red grenade, Augusta stepped in through the tunnel. Beiji crouched and followed her, and Milly grumbled and begrudgingly walked in after them.

They crept down the corridor, completely tense and awaiting ambush, but it never came. Instead they found themselves in what appeared to be a disused pumping station. Only a skeleton of the pumps remained, but the disused pipes were still there, leading into the ceiling with what resembled vintage phonograph horns attached to their ends. On the wall, there were three words written in purple ink: ERANT SEMPER AUDIRE.

Beiji approached the writing on the wall and examined it. “That's... I think I know that language. It is an ancient old world tongue known as Latin. They still use it biology and other sciences.” 

“What does it mean?”

“I'm not exactly proficient, but I think it translates into: We're always listening.”

Augusta approached one of the horns on the pipes and leaned her head in close to it to listen. Voices echoed inside it, and she understand they were talking about politics, governing the city, et cetera. Taken aback by this, the pulled out the sector map and searched for the dead-ended circular room with the basin on it. When she found it she noticed it was very close to the city council hall.

“Oh fuck. This is a listening post. They're spying on the city council from here.”

“Well... remember the 5th of November.” Milly replied, and her teammates stared at her in confusion. "Anyways, I think we should probably report this."


End file.
